Repeat
by Satol
Summary: Some say that dreams are just remixed arrangements of our memories. 18 27
1. The First Dream

**Evidence 1: The First Dream**_  
_

_Genre: Friendship, Supernatural, Mystery_

_Though the town of Namimori is small, its history holds three recent disappearances, and transfer students coming and going with the seasons. As Sawada Tsunayoshi, Tsuna for short, tries to solve the mysteries behind his friends and his past, he repeats dreams and relives memories, while the rabbit hole goes deeper than he that ever thought possible._

* * *

An explosion in the distance, followed by more. He couldn't see clearly, and all sounds seemed muted, like he was surrounded in a cloud of cotton. He couldn't move well, either.

Who was it…? There was someone shouting at him, shaking him by the shoulders, but he couldn't see them clearly. He could only tell that there was a lot of red. He felt his own mouth move, but he couldn't hear what he was saying. There seemed to be at least four of them… he couldn't see. Were there more?

Suddenly they were all running, and he heard the dull thudding of many feet hitting the dirt path into the forest. They were running towards a bright light. He pushed someone towards it, and that person turned and grabbed his sleeve. They were shouting at him too, but he couldn't understand. He couldn't hear, he could barely see the exact movements of the mouth, and he couldn't see the eyes, hidden beneath light-colored bangs.

He felt like he should have been panicking, but instead, he smiled and felt his mouth move again. Then he pushed. The person went stumbling backwards, and he continued smiling, closing his eyes as the light pulsated and expanded, as everything vanished into the blinding whiteness.

"… _No!"_

…

Tsuna jerked awake, yelping as his head collided with someone's elbow. As he clutched his head and rubbed the painful bump, he looked up with large caramel eyes brimming with tears. He had chestnut-brown hair that flew every which way and was perfectly untamable, framing a young face and high-placed eyebrows. He was of slight build, thin, with not much muscle and not much height. It was no wonder then, that whatever team he was on in PE always lost.

Gokudera Hayato blinked at him in momentary shock, then bowed apologetically. "I'm very sorry for disturbing your sleep, Tenth!" he said, letting go of the string he had been holding. "I came early and your mother asked me to come up and wake you, so I was pulling up the blinds! My elbow should not have been in a place where your head could have been hit! Allow me to cut off this offending arm!"

"H- hiiie! Gokudera-kun, please don't!" Tsuna yelped.

"Then at least allow me to slam my fingers in the door!"

Tsuna shook his head furiously and rubbed his head again, before looking around. It was his room, littered with junk and messy as always. The window above the desk was open to allow the warming morning air to enter, the blinds pulled up. He blinked in the bright light, raising an arm to shade his eyes. That must have been what the sudden whiteness in his dream was. The door was open, but that couldn't have produced the dull explosion noise; Gokudera was much too polite (at least to him) to slam a door open like that. What he had heard had been much more like…

Three loud knocks came then, dull, low sounds from the front door. "Tsu-kun, hurry and get up!" his mother called from downstairs. "I think Yamamoto-kun is here!"

"Drat!" Tsuna exclaimed, trying to extract his legs from the sheets he had managed to entangle himself in. "I need to-"

"I've already set out a set of clothes for you, Tenth," Gokudera said helpfully, before a pile of fresh laundry (neatly folded) plopped onto the brunet's lap.

Tsuna smiled. "Thank you, Gokudera-kun… but you really didn't have to."

Gokudera beamed at the praise and made an embellished gesture of gratitude. "It is my duty to care for the one who saved my life, Tenth!" he said proudly, bowing low again. "At least allow me to do this much."

"Yo, Tsuna," a new voice called from the doorway, and the two looked up to see Yamamoto Takeshi. Yamamoto was tall for a Japanese boy, standing at least a head and a bit over Tsuna, and had black hair that was just as messy as Tsuna's, though quite a bit shorter. His eyes were light for a Japanese person, too, being somewhere between the colors of a potato skin and dry dirt. He had tanned skin from many years of playing baseball, and calloused hands from handling the bat and ball. "I ended up coming early, hope that's alright."

Tsuna shook his head and finally got out of bed, picking up the clothes that Gokudera had laid out for him. "No, it's alright," he said, and motioned for Yamamoto and Gokudera to both take a seat. "Make yourselves at home, I guess; I'm going to go to the bathroom to change, okay?"

When the two sat down, he nodded and then exited to go change.

_What a strange dream_, he thought, slipping his pajama shirt off and tugging his t-shirt on. _I can't even remember it clearly anymore… but… there was something I needed._ Yawning, he decided to abandon the mental search for information on the dream. It was just a dream. He used the toilet before washing his hands, then tugged a pair of cargo pants on, followed by a jacket. Then he splashed his face with cold water and gathered his pajamas to take back to his room.

Re-entering, he was surprised to find Yamamoto and Gokudera talking civically. Gokudera, being easily annoyed, and Yamamoto, being loud and energetic and not much more than happy-go-lucky, did not usually go for any great amount of time without the former snapping for one reason or another. (On more than one occasion, it had even been just because "Yamamoto was radiating of stupid, Tenth!")

"Right," he began, smiling cheerfully despite not being a morning person (or a night person, or an after- actually, he really just wasn't a get-up-and-go person). "It's saturday, and we've got two days to work on this report for Language Arts. The teacher said that we can work in groups, so that's what we're doing. The assignment is to write a short piece using character development." He paused here, before turning to Gokudera. "Am I missing anything?"

Gokudera shook his head and rifled through his own ransel. "No, Tenth, I think that's it," he said, before managing to extract the assignment sheet. "Hmm, well… yes. You're right on the mark, Tenth."

"So how should we do this?" Yamamoto asked.

"The Tenth will lead us," Gokudera said proudly, turning with great expectations to his precious friend. "Right?"

Tsuna colored slightly. After two years of their little Namimori Trio, he still wasn't entirely used to being so heavily believed in. ("The Namimori Trio" was a nickname for themselves that, once upon a snow-capped mid-winter day in fourth grade, Yamamoto had joked and coined. The reason had been that, ironically, only Tsuna was really _from_ Namimori [and even then his father was an Italian, hence his light brown hair and caramel eyes]. True, Yamamoto had lived there most of his life, but he had moved from another town, hence how when he had first come, "spaghetti" had been "western-sea style fried noodles." [Tsuna vaguely remembered that this had been the source of much hilarity for their classmates until they learned how much of a killer fastball he could throw. And any other kind of ball. And anything else to do with sports, especially baseball. His father had also set up a quickly-booming sushi restaurant, so nobody complained when Yamamoto brought some as a gift.] Gokudera had transferred to Namimori 2 years ago from… somewhere in the occident. Tsuna wasn't exactly sure where.)

"I- I can try my best, but that's all I can do," Tsuna laughed nervously, then looked around. "So… any ideas on how we can make this worth?"

Yamamoto opened his mouth, but was interrupted when his stomach gave an impatient rumble. "Haha, how about brainfood?" he suggested, laughing.

"Idiot," Gokudera grumbled. "You should have eaten before you came, instead of wasting the Tenth's time with senseless drivel!"

"Actually," Tsuna said, coming between them. "I think-" However, his stomach decided to finish the sentence in its own language with a growl. "Haha, guess Yamamoto was right," he laughed, scratching the back of his head. "Maybe we _should_ eat something before writing or brainstorming. Calories boost the brain or something like that?"

"Of course, Tenth!" Gokudera interjected, always trying to be helpful to his lifesaver. "How noble of you to think of our welfare! Oi, baseball idiot, be grateful!"

Tsuna smiled, watching Gokudera try to force a helplessly laughing Yamamoto into an awkward bow. Lively days were a given with the Namimori Trio, and today was no exception.

In almost no time at all, Sawada Nana, Tsuna's mother, had all three boys seated at the table and was setting out plates of two sausages each, some greens, and a slice of bread each, setting out more bread, spreadable cheese, jam, and almost everything else that could possibly included into a breakfast dish. "Mom, where's Dad gone?" Tsuna asked, taking his toast and spreading some jam on it. "He was here yesterday."

"He went to work early today, Tsu-kun," Nana reminded him, placing a liberal amount of fried egg on each of their plates. "Remember? He got called by the construction company out into one of the nearby towns."

"Oh yeah," Tsuna recollected, taking a bite. Sawada Iemitsu ran a number of jobs; one was managing the traffic flow around construction sites. Another was driving a delivery truck to and from the construction sites. Yet another was being a miner for the construction sites. In short, he could do (and had done at least once) every job involving said construction that needed doing.

"Hey, I got an idea!" Yamamoto said, spraying breadcrumbs back onto his plate. "Why don't we each write a story from someone else's point of view?"

The other two contemplated a bit. "I hate to admit it, but Yamamoto's got a pretty good idea there," Gokudera muttered grudgingly. Yamamoto grinned.

"Well who writes who?" Tsuna asked.

"As his right hand man, I shall write for you, Tenth!" Gokudera offered zestfully.

"Haha! Hey, I wanted to write Tsuna's!" Yamamoto laughed. Gokudera yelled at him.

Anxious to end the conflict, Tsuna chose a random selection. "Hey, why don't you two use rock-paper-scissors?" he asked helpfully. "Then it's just luck, so no hard feelings, right?"

Gokudera and Yamamoto looked at each other, then nodded. They hit their right fists into their left palms three times to the words "rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" and on the fourth, they made their own signs. The reaction was immediate.

Gokudera yelled dramatically and crumbled onto the table, nearly smothering his face onto his plate as he cried to the heavens on how he lost. Yamamoto, on the other hand, laughed gaily and scratched his head. "Guess I'm doing yours, then, Tsuna!" he chuckled.

Tsuna was too busy consoling Gokudera though. "Don't be so down, Gokudera-kun," he tried to say gently. "Um… I'll write yours, then! So be happy? I'll try to do a good job! So you have to try too!"

"… Since the Tenth says so," Gokudera sat back up, gathering himself together.

"Actually, it's sort of nice this way," Tsuna continued. "Since Gokudera-kun's always doing things for me, now I can give you something back because I'm writing for you."

By the end of the sentence, Gokudera was rubbing tears from his eyes. "Oh, Tenth! How kind of you!" he cried. "Forgive me for being so ungrateful! Yes, I will write something for Yamamoto!"

"So Gokudera does mine, I do yours, and you do his!" Yamamoto summed up with a smile. "Hmm… what to write…"

Gokudera wasn't listening anymore, on the other hand. He had already gotten out a pair of glasses and a notepad and was scribbling down ideas. Coming to a stop, he looked up and poked Yamamoto with a fork. "Oi, Baseball Idiot," he interrupted. "What kind of weather do you like?"

Yamamoto blinked at the odd question. "Weather? Um… I really like warm sunshine. But rain's really nice too! Fog is always cold and it gets hard to see. But then again, I didn't _used_ to like rain. I mean, you can't really play baseball in the rain, you know? Haha! I like rain when it's falling 'zaa zaa' or 'para para.' Oh, but then snow is great! Y'know, snowball fights and all that! And when you're watching it fall it's just so… 'fuwa fuwa.' It's hard to play other games then, too, though. But yeah, sunshine is nice 'cause the sun's all 'hoka hoka!' And, and-"

"Now that I think about it, Yamamoto, you lived much farther south, didn't you?" Tsuna interrupted. He was pretty sure Gokudera was beginning to get annoyed with all the strange descriptions Yamamoto was using. "Was there any snow at all there?"

The other shook his head. "No, not really," he replied. "It was Nara. We had… maybe a week of snow a year; not much. Winter was usually around 3 or 4 degrees, I think. But summers went up to the high 20s and low 30s pretty regularly. Lots of rain though. Which reminds me, why's it so cool in November?"

"Because it's _November_, you idiot," Gokudera snorted. "Of course it's cool."

Tsuna laughed nervously. "I think he means that it's not _cold_ yet," he said, hoping the words would translate better this time. Fortunately, they did. "But Yamamoto's right," he said. "I mean, usually around my birthday I'm shivering like a leaf. Yeah, I'm shivering like a leaf, but the temperature hasn't dropped any farther."

"Hey, Gokudera?" Yamamoto interrupted. The one in question grunted. "Can I borrow a sheet of that notebook paper?"

"What for?" Tsuna asked.

Yamamoto grinned. "'Cause I just got a really good idea."

Upon her next visit to the table, Nana had found them all scribbling down words on paper from Gokudera's notepad and extra pencils from Tsuna's pencil box (actually, only Yamamoto was doing both). Asking if they were done with their breakfast, all of them answered that they were planning to eat it, just got a bit distracted. Her only answer was: "What good kids! As long as it's being 'distracted' by homework, then I don't mind. But try not to get food stains in your notes!"

They quickly scarfed down the rest of their food (or as much of it as they could; Nana had habit of cooking too much food) and headed back upstairs, armed only with some notes, a pencil each, their randoseru, and a tray of tea and elevenses that Tsuna's mother had readied. (Despite the fact that it was still only 9, she had joked that they were elevenses because she had made so many they wouldn't be done until 11 at earliest.)

When Tsuna was almost done with a page, Gokudera interrupted them. "Hey, should we finish these here or get started and work on them later?" he asked.

"I'm in the zone right now!" Yamamoto laughed. "So I'm gonna see if I can finish. And if we do, then we can go somewhere fun tomorrow and not worry about homework, right?"

"Right," Tsuna agreed, still scribbling. "E- except I still need to do my science and history homework… and math. Which means everything"

"Oh yeah," Yamamoto said, tapping the butt of his pencil against his chin. "I haven't done any of that other stuff either. Well, since we all brought our bags, how about we work on Language Arts until noon or when we finish, whichever comes first, then History, then Science and Math last?"

"Can we really finish all that today?" Tsuna questioned skeptically. Yamamoto laughed after contemplating a bit and said that it probably wasn't possible to _finish_.

"If worst comes to worst," he joked, "Gokudera and I can always stay the night, and then tomorrow we can just blow the whole day off doing something fun. Or sleeping from pulling an all-nighter."

Tsuna's mother chose this moment to enter. "That sounds like a wonderful idea!" she smiled, setting down a fresh pot of green tea on the low table and picking up the cold one. (Tsuna briefly wondered what it was, exactly, that sounded like "a wonderful idea.") "Oh, but you two boys will have to call your parents. Doesn't that sound like fun, Tsu-kun?" She babbled on and on, asking if they were comfortable, if they needed anything, telling them where the phone was downstairs and how happy she was to have guests. Tsuna sometimes wondered how he was related to her.

"Thanks, mrs. Sawada!" Yamamoto laughed cheerfully.

Gokudera bowed. "Thank you for the kindness, Tenth's mother!" he said, before turning to Tsuna. "I live on the other end of the town, so would it be alright to go get my things now?"

"I have nothing against it," Tsuna chuckled. Gokudera could be so silly sometimes. "Don't you need to ask Bianchi? Should I go with you?"

Gokudera contemplated the question. "Actually, would you? I'm not sure if she's at work right now, and I'd rather not find out on my own. I'm very sorry for the trouble."

"Then why don't we all go together after lunch?" Yamamoto suggested. "Y'know, 'cause I need to get my stuff too."

Tsuna beamed. "That sounds like a great idea!" Gokudera ignored Yamamoto and agreed with Tsuna's plan. Nana agreed and left the room, telling them to come back downstairs whenever they got hungry. The three went back to writing.

"Gah!" Tsuna exclaimed a few minutes later, snatching another cookie. "I'm stuck…"

"Well what're you stuck with?" Yamamoto asked curiously. "I'm sure we can help."

"Would it make more sense for a cat to give a dog and a mouse a pledge or some sort of gift?"

Both contemplated the question. "Well, many cats are prideful creatures," Gokudera pointed out. "Then again, many aren't. What's the relationship between the three?"

"Friendship."

"Ah. In that case… a pledge would probably be made over something dead. A fish or a bird or something. Except that's a gift… I've found that when a cat gives you something that it killed, it's telling you something good."

Yamamoto laughed. "That reminds me," he chortled. "The other day I saw someone run up a street to have a staring contest with an alley cat. Was that you, Gokudera?"

Immediately Gokudera pulled away and made the most comical expression of indignant shock that neither Tsuna nor Yamamoto had ever_hoped_ to see on _anyone_, much less the grouchy and rather stoic Gokudera Hayato. "You–!" Gokudera spluttered as both burst out laughing. "When did- Oh my god, how did- Gaaaaah!" He was nearly tearing his hair out as he gaped at his two friends. Yamamoto had his face squashed into his manuscript paper, laughing hysterically and pounding his fist onto the table. Tsuna was curled up into a ball on the floor, trying in vain to stifle his giggles. "Neither of you say _anything_ about that," Gokudera growled.

"Of course, of course!" Tsuna spluttered out, still giggling. "It's jus- heehee! It's just that you're _the last_ person- hahaha!"

"Oh man, this is _priceless_!" Yamamoto chortled. "Of course we're not gonna tell- hehe! Gokudera! What do you take us for, i- i- hahaha!"

After a full minute, all three were 'back into the zone,' as Yamamoto put it. Gokudera was now writing down faster than before, having burnt through two pages and a bit already for an assignment that was limited to four. Apparently he had a burst of inspiration. Yamamoto was taking it slower, getting closer and closer to the one and three-quarter page mark. Tsuna was dead last, having finally gotten to a page and almost a half. He had to keep stopping from the fact that he was simply lacking in writing skills.

He looked up to try and compare his friends with the characters he had written. Apparently Yamamoto and Gokudera apparently had the same idea, because they suddenly all found themselves staring at each other. Hilarity ensued.

Finally, at eleven thirty, they put down their pencils. "I hope the teacher doesn't care that I went over a bit," Gokudera grumbled, shifting through his sheets. "I've been proofreading, but I can't find anything that would be alright to cut."

"Haha, that's easy for you to say!" Yamamoto laughed. "I barely scraped the two-page requirement!" Noticing that Tsuna was still scratching away, he nudged the brunet's foot under the table. "Hanging on there, Tsuna?" he asked cheerfully.

"Just a little bit more… Done!" Proudly, Tsuna slapped down his pencil with an air of decisiveness. "Er… I think I got two pages, and maybe three-quarters of a third one at most," he said, scratching his cheek. "Something like that? I wasn't keeping track."

Yamamoto looked at the clock. "We still have half an hour before lunch, guys," he commented. "Why don't we peer-edit? And Tsuna, your mom was right; there was no way we could've finished all those snacks before eleven! I mean, there's still a bit left!"

Tsuna laughed quietly too. "Yeah, mom likes to cook for people. She's everyone's mom, really. I mean, one time when we got a postcard that dad was coming home, the next morning I woke up to find a feast fit for seven kings on the table. And she was still making more!"

"Sounds like my dad," Yamamoto chuckled. "Whenever I talk to him about someone I met that day, he gets up, rolls his sleeves and said, 'Right then, how many was this again? I'll need to make sushi for them as thanks for taking care of you!' Haha, there's been plenty of times when they weren't even helpful to me!"

"My sister makes food out of poisonous herbs and animals, then kills things with it."

The merriment level dropped like a stone at Gokudera's dead-pan statement.

Then he grinned cheekily. "As if! She makes food, but a lot of times she likes to experiment, so sometimes funny things get into it. It's why I get stomach pains from seeing her; she repeatedly fed me cookies she made from an impromptu recipe. Apparently there were shiitake mushrooms, paprika, garlic, and fish oil in there. Not to mention who knows what else. It all summed up into trauma."

"A- anyway!" Tsuna interrupted. "Let's switch! Um… how about we switch with whoever wrote us, and then we show the person we wrote for tomorrow? How does that sound?"

"Sounds good t'me!"

"What a wonderful idea, Tenth!"

Passing their papers clockwise, Tsuna began reading Gokudera's narrative.

…

I always hated the rain.

Ever since I was little, I had resented the sky every time it broke water down upon the earth. I wasn't particularly poetic in the first place, but still, I never understood what all those poets and song-writers saw in the post-rain air or the feeling of getting drenched. It just never made sense. Not to me.

When it rained, I couldn't feel the sun's warmth. When it rained, the air felt heavy and depressing. When it rained, the whole town became a watercolor picture of monochrome hues. When it rained, I couldn't play baseball.

Whenever it rained, we had to cancel baseball practice, and I would always be bummed. Baseball was my life, and I couldn't play it when it rained. Therefore, I couldn't live when it rained. That's what I thought.

"Oi, baseball idiot! Hurry up!"

The 'baseball idiot' in question snapped up at the call, and realized that his two friends were calling him. Gokudera Hayato, the one who had made the statement, scowled, eyes smoldering in annoyance. Next to him stood the shorter Sawada Tsuna, with his usual shy smile. "Tch," Gokudera huffed, turning away. "What's a baseball idiot dreaming for? He's got no brain to think with. We're leaving; hurry up."

Yamamoto laughed his signature laugh, lazily using one arm to sweep all his notebooks, textbooks, and pencil case into his schoolbag. "Sorry, sorry!" he apologized, grinning widely. "Just started spacing out."

Tsuna laughed nervously, then walked over to close the window. "Um, Yamamoto?" he asked. "Are you… feeling alright?"

Yamamoto looked puzzled at the question. "Yeah, I think so. Why?"

The brunet looked relieved, and pressed his hands on the glass, looking outside. "Nothing, nothing," he insisted, resting his forehead on the cool surface. "You just looked kind of… down just now. So I was only wondering if you were alright."

"Oi, Yamamoto, get your act together!" Gokudera growled, joining the gathering. "The Tenth is looking out for your well-being! Be grateful!"

"Wow," Tsuna sighed, completely ignoring his two companions. "Look at all that rain!"

Yamamoto turned his head. The downpour was so heavy, it made the sky almost as dark as it would be at nightfall. "Wow…" he echoed, though with much less energy. "Maybe we should go, guys," he sputtered out, hopping up and speeding out the classroom.

"What's wrong with him?" Gokudera sneered, glaring after the retreating figure. Tsuna only shook his head and replied that he didn't know.

Down at the shoe lockers, as Yamamoto was trading his sneakers for his uwabaki. Tsuna and Gokudera quickly came hopping down the stairs soon after. "Are you sure nothing's wrong, Yamamoto?" Tsuna asked again.

He nodded. "Yeah, just… tired, that's all. Man, I'm glad it's friday!"

Tsuna nodded. "I completely agree," he replied. "After all, tomorrow's saturday, so that means we can do nothing for the better part of the day." Gokudera nodded in agreement. "Oh!" Tsuna said, clapping his hands together. "How about this: since it's raining now, a lot of the trash and stuff will be washed into the paths were the litter-pickers actually pick litter. Why don't we go to the park tomorrow?"

Yamamoto blinked in surprise. "The rain washes things away?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Tsuna affirmed. "It washes all the dust and bad things away." After a pause, he hopped over to the door. "Kind of like when you laugh, Yamamoto. It's like you don't need to worry about anything, because no matter what happens, Yamamoto will still laugh and smile. Does that make sense?"

"What beautiful poetic words!" Gokudera commented proudly.

As they walked out into the rain, Yamamoto no longer felt the need to pull out an umbrella. Because the sudden rain, as it gently dyed the whole town, was washing all the dust and bad things away.

…

Having finished, Tsuna put the stack back down. "Gokudera, let me just say a few things," he began. "First of all, I have_ no idea_ why you are in the sixth grade. You should be in high school, I swear. Or at the very least, you should be a middle school second-year at _Yuumei_ on_scholarship_. Second, I see absolutely nothing wrong with this. In fact, all I see is you being _amazing_. Third, I feel awfully flattered even though the story is supposed to be about Yamamoto."

"I'm so honored, Tenth!" was his only coherent reply.

"Haha, I liked yours too, Tsuna!" Yamamoto laughed. "And you lied; it was almost four pages! These three should be the Nami _Mori_ Trio, since they live in a forest!"

Tsuna held his floor cushion out for Yamamoto to take, and Gokudera smacked the latter with his own. "That's the worst pun I've ever heard," the silver-haired boy scowled.

Yamamoto was laughing instead. "Aw, c'mon, Tsuna!" he giggled. "Only one?"

"Only one," Tsuna confirmed, smiling. "_Anyway_, how was Yamamoto's, Gokudera?"

Gokudera shrugged. "It was good, for a baseball idiot," he said dryly. "I never thought he would have a head for symbolism like that."

"Sorry," Yamamoto laughed. "That was a one-time-only deal. I only got it 'cause Tsuna was talking about his view of the weather." At that point, his stomach gave a noisy gurgle, and he laughed. "Guess it's time to eat, then? Since I don't think any of us found anything particularly wrong."

Gokudera stretched and cracked his neck. "I need to go talk to aneki," he said, getting up.

"She works at a pizza place on weekends, doesn't she?" Tsuna pointed out. "Why don't we just go eat there and ask her while we're at it?"

"Sounds good t'me," Yamamoto grinned.

Gokudera complied, saying, "If the Tenth says so!"

…

"Bye mom, we're going out for lunch!"

"Come back before it gets dark!"

Slamming the door behind him, Tsuna walked out. "Alright," he said, pulling a pair of white mittens on. His mother had knit them for him for christmas last year, and they were wonderful; warm white wool with red patterns. "Should we go talk to Yamamoto's dad first, since it's close, or talk to Bianchi?"

"Gokudera probably won't be able to eat if we go see his sister first," Yamamoto pointed out. Gokudera agreed.

"So I guess we're going to Takesushi, then?" Tsuna shrugged. "Why don't you lead, Yamamoto?"

"Alright," Yamamoto said, taking a step ahead. "But I'm warning you, he's going to try and feed you a ton."

When they arrived, Yamamoto slid open the door. "Dad!" he called. "We need to- whoa!"

Lifting up his foot, Yamamoto extricated a rather large puppy's jaws from his ankle. "No, bad," he chided the pup. "Don't bite people's feet."

Walking in still holding the dog, Tsuna and Gokudera followed. "Yo, Takeshi!" Yamamoto Tsuyoshi called from behind the counter. "And Tsuna-kun and Gokudera-kun too! What's the rush? Don't tell me you broke someone's window again."

"No, I didn't," Yamamoto assured, laughing. "Actually, we were wondering if I could stay over at Tsuna's place tonight."

His father went right back to chopping up a sizable chunk of what looked like kanpachi. "Sure, sure!" he said cheerfully. "Come in, sit down. I'll get you something to eat!"

"N- no thank you, you don't have to!" Tsuna said. Yamamoto's father ignored them.

"See? What'd I tell you?" he laughed.

Resigning, they sat down at the counter. "So, how's your mom and dad, Tsuna-kun?" the light-hearted cook asked, striking up random chatter. "Heard your dad's away again."

"Y- yeah," the brunet replied. "He left early this morning, actually."

"Takeshi, can you take Jiro back out back? He wormed his way in a few minutes ago and just sat in front of the door. Like he knew you were coming."

"Sure thing, dad." Yamamoto got up, letting the puppy carry on with biting his head.

"I didn't know you had a dog, Yamamoto," Tsuna pointed out.

Yamamoto hummed. "Hmm? Oh yeah. He followed me home a few days ago so we just let him live here. And now he won't leave."

"Why 'Jiro?'" Gokudera asked, taking a sip of his tea. "Do you have two dogs or something?"

Yamamoto laughed. "No, no," he replied, waving his hand. "My dad joked that there were two kids in the house now, so we named him 'second son.' Funny, huh? Anyway, gotta go out back. He stays in the backyard or upstairs, 'cause, you know, this's a restaurant and all."

"I wonder if most restaurants are like that," Tsuna asked Gokudera, accepting and thanking Tsuyoshi when he handed them plates.

"Dunno," the other shrugged. "But I'd say that Yamamoto's family would be hard put to _not_ be so carefree about it." Yamamoto came back, so he asked his own question. "Hey, Yamamoto. Why are there so few people even though it's lunchtime?"

"Actually, I'll answer that one," Tsuyoshi interrupted. "It's saturday. Most people wake up late on the weekends, so they eat late, so the lunch rush usually ends up being around 1 or 1:30 for restaurants. Here, have some negitoro!"

"Oh, no, we couldn't!" Tsuna said, gaping.

Yamamoto elbowed him and just accepted the plate from his father. "Don't argue with my dad, Tsuna," he laughed. "He wants you guys to have it; chances are, he's not gonna accept pay either, by the way." Passing out equal portions for each of them, he poured himself some soy sauce and dug in. Tsuna and Gokudera looked at each other, shrugged, and followed suit.

"Excuse me, are you open right now?"

All four males turned to see a young girl, probably a third year in middle school, looking into the shop through the still open door. (Yamamoto smacked himself on the head for his blunder.) They looked at Tsuyoshi, who shrugged. "Of course we are!" he said, smiling. "Come in, take a seat. Here's a menu."

"Yamamoto-san, do you always work solo?" Tsuna asked, a piece of kanpachi that they had just been supplied with halfway to his mouth.

"No, Takeshi helps a lot, actually," the father answered. "And usually I have one or two helpers. Today they're on break. Now, miss, have you decided what you're ordering?"

"Actually, I'm waiting for some friends," she said from a table. "But I'll take some tea for now!"

While Tsuyoshi was getting another pot of tea ready, Jiro began to bark and scratch at the door outside. "Oh, whoops!" Yamamoto laughed. "Forgot to refill his food and water! Be right back!" Immediately, he vanished behind the short curtains to the main kitchen in the back. There was the sound of a cupboard opening and shutting, the rustles of a paper bag, and the back door shutting with a clack.

Putting down his chopsticks, Tsuna spoke up. "Yamamoto-san!" he called. "May I borrow your phone for a moment?"

"Sure, Tsuna-kun," the man smiled. "Come back into the kitchen."

"What for, Tenth?" Gokudera asked.

Tsuna smiled. "Oh, I just figured it would probably be faster to call Bianchi now, y'know? You have her cell phone number, right?"

"Yes, but you shouldn't have to- for my sake!" Gokudera spluttered. He seemed rather distraught.

"No, no, it's okay!" Tsuna assured him. "It's just a phone call! I'll be right back." Convinced, Gokudera recited his sister's cellular phone number to his friend, and the brunet disappeared behind the curtains too.

And was immediately attacked by a dog.

Shrieking and yelling in surprise, Tsuna went down as Jiro put his large front paws on his forelegs. Gokudera shouted something incomprehensible. "Sorry, Tsuna!" Yamamoto yelped, running in. "I don't know what happened, Jiro just suddenly ran inside. You carrying any meat or something?"

"N- no, I don't think so," Tsuna managed to splutter out between Jiro nuzzling his face affectionately and giving him licks. "He- hey, don't do that!" He laughed, flailing a bit as the Akita's rough tongue showered him with affection. Working up some courage, he scratched the dog behind his triangular ear. Jiro immediately sat down obediently, tongue lolling appreciatively as his head leaned into the scratching and his tail thumped on the floor. "J- Jiro's sort of like you, Yamamoto. He's really… um… friendly."

"Haha, Jiro loves everyone," Yamamoto agreed. "Everyone he's met so far, anyway. You're the first person he hasn't gnawed on, though."

"What?" the brunet squeaked.

Yamamoto laughed again. "Jiro bites peoples' heads when he likes them," he explained, kneeling on the floor to give the tail-wagging dog a friendly pat/ruffle on the head. The akita turned and leaned his forepaws on Yamamoto's shoulder, biting down on the baseball nut's head. "See?" he laughed, petting the dog anyway.

"It's not like you've got any brains in there to damage," Gokudera snarked from the doorway. He had run in immediately after Tsuna shouted, and, having seen that there were no serious threats, simply stood there and glared at the dog. The dog barked at him in reply.

"A- anyway, I was going to call Bianchi," Tsuna said, rubbing Jiro's ear again and getting up. Yamamoto pointed into the corner where the phone was on the wall, before ushering the sweet puppy back outside to eat his own food. Punching in the numbers, Tsuna waited as the ringing began. Gokudera drifted closer once the must-too-carefree Yamamoto Takeshi and his much-too-friendly dog were out the door.

On the third ring, someone picked up. _"Hello?"_ an older woman's voice answered.

"Ah, Bianchi-san?" Tsuna asked. Gokudera stiffened slightly, but stayed where he was.

"_Speaking. Tsuna, is that you?"_

"Ah, yes! I'm using the Yamamotos' phone at Takesushi."

"_Ah, I see. Did you need something?"_

"Actually, Gokudera-kun and I were wondering if he could spend the night at my house tonight. Would that be alright with you?"

"_Of course it is. Where's Hayato right now?"_

"Oh, he's right next to me. Would you like me to pass the phone to him?"

"_Yes, I would. Thank you, Tsuna."_

"No problem!" Holding out the phone to Gokudera, he said, "She wants to talk to you, Gokudera-kun."

The silver-haired boy accepted the phone politely and moved closer to the wall to talk. What Tsuna could hear of the conversation included much of the following: "yes," "yeah," "I know that!" "whatever," "why are you asking _me_?" "I don't care," "sure," "of course I will! What are you saying! ?"

Passing the phone back to Tsuna, Gokudera made to slam his head into the wall in frustration. Tsuna stopped him. "Thank you again, Bianchi-san!" he said cheerfully.

"_No problem, Tsuna. I'm glad that Hayato's happy. Take care!"_

Having cut the line, Tsuna replaced the phone back onto the wall. "What was that about?" he asked Gokudera curiously.

The boy immediately stood back up. "Nothing, Tenth!" he said a little bit too loudly. "It was just aneki saying stupid things."

After finishing their lunch, thanking Tsuyoshi for the free food, and collectively sneaking the ¥2570 that they had pooled underneath their plates, the three sixth-graders hightailed it out of the store and made it back to Tsuna's house without being discovered. "Tenth, allow me to excuse myself to go pick up my stuff from my house," Gokudera said.

"Haha, that's okay!" Tsuna said, and Gokudera bowed and split, calling as he left.

"If I'm late, please allow me to slam my head in the door on the way in!"

It was at that moment that his mother came out. "Ah, Tsu-kun!" she said happily upon seeing him. "I'm sorry, but could you run some errands for me? It's just picking up some groceries. I'm cooking something special for dinner tonight, since Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto-kun are staying, so I can't leave my hands open! Oh, wait, the stove!" Hardly waiting to shove a wallet, a shopping bag and a laundry list of all the requested items into her son's hands, she scurried back inside to check on whatever happened to be cooking.

"Um… how about we just split up and meet back here in half an hour? Unless you want to come shopping with me, of course," Tsuna suggested. Yamamoto nodded.

"Haha, I think that's a great idea! I'll go take Jiro for a 20-minute walk or something, then!" They scattered.

…

"And last thing is… batteries. Well that should be- oh wait, there's a backside."

Tsuna groaned, making a turn into the route to the nearest convenience store. "I can just pick everything up there any- wah!"

Backing up and rubbing his nose, Tsuna started. "Ah, I'm so sorry! I just, um… you were… I think…"

"Hibari," the other filled in. Dusting off his black pants, Hibari looked Tsuna up and down skeptically. "You are… alone?"

"Um, yes!" Tsuna answered hesitantly. "I'm just running some errands for my mom before meeting up with some friends in… ten or fifteen minutes. A- and you, Hibari-san?"

The older boy shrugged. "I've moved to Namimori, so I needed to buy groceries. And… some other things. I'm out of batteries right now, so I was going to go buy some."

"Haha, what a coincidence!" Tsuna laughed nervously. "I need to buy some too. Do you need… um… how should I put this…"

Hibari shook his head. "I do not need any guidance, thank you. Though, if we're in search of the same item, it stands to reason that you might as well continue talking while we walk, seeing as you do not seem to be finished with whatever it was you were planning on saying."

As Tsuna walked a pace behind the taller boy, he tried to continue the slightly awkward conversation. He had only just met Hibari, so this was his chance to make a good first impression! It would be bad if everyone on earth began to think of him as no-good.

As they were flitting through the isles, Hibari picking up a few daily necessities like a carton of milk, a bottle of tea and some instant food along the way, he turned to face the shorter brunet. "You," he said. "Don't you have any companions?"

"Companions?" Tsuna asked, confused. "Um… not right now. My friends and I were going to meet back up at my house later. Gokudera-kun is getting things from his house and Yamamoto is taking his dog for a walk."

"I see."

Having found the batteries, Tsuna picked up what he needed, crossing the items off his list. "Well, I will be going home," Hibari said.

"Oh! Um, thank you for putting up with me, Hibari-san," Tsuna called after the retreating figure. His only reply was an off-handed wave. Sighing, he set to picking up everything else before heading home.

* * *

_For those of you familiar with the 12-episode OVA "Puella Magi Madoka Magica", as the story goes on, you will likely notice that there are parallels between Tsuna and Hibari's relationship and Madoka and Homura's. Mostly in that there will be BL undertones._


	2. The Younger Brother

**Evidence 2: The Younger Brother**

* * *

When Tsuna opened the door, he was greeted with a hug-tackle from Gokudera that very nearly bowled him other backwards. "Tenth–!" the silver-haired boy wailed. "I was so worried! I'm so glad you're alright!"

"Haha," Yamamoto laughed, coming outside as well. "I told you he'd be fine, Gokudera! He just ran some errands for his mom."

"Shut up, idiot!" Gokudera spat, changing gears faster than should have been possible. "It's your fault! Why weren't you with the tenth! ? What if he had run into a drunkard or a thief! Or worse, someone who would _hurt him._"

"No, no, Gokudera, I'm fine!" Tsuna said, waving his hands. "See? And besides, the only run-in that I had with someone was my fault. And he was okay with it, so it's fine! Really!"

"If the Tenth says so…" Gokudera grumbled. They all headed inside.

Up in Tsuna's room, the three were pouring over their history homework as Gokudera tried to lecture them without being intimidating. He was having a rough time. Tsuna could remember all the dates when things happened, but he could never remember what the events were called, and, quite often, he couldn't remember what happened on those dates, either. Yamamoto, on the other hand, could remember all the names of the famous people and happenings, but he could never remember why they were important or when they happened in what order. Both knew important facts, but neither could connect the dots to anything else to get them to the right answer.

"Alright, let's try this again," Gokudera sighed. He studied consistently with enough zeal that he didn't need to at this point. "The first Tokugawa shogun was…"

"Tokugawa Ieyasu!" Yamamoto answered. Tsuna was baffled.

"And he was born…"

Tsuna piped up, "January 31, 1549! Death was June 1, 1616!" Yamamoto was speechless.

"Gosh, it would be nice if this was a partner test," Yamamoto laughed. "Then Tsuna'n' I'd probably ace it."

"Next question," Gokudera continued, ignoring the baseball idiot. "The fourth and fifth shoguns were…"

"Uh… parent-child?" Yamamoto tested.

"No, that was Iemitsu and Ietsu- dang it!" Gokudera threw the book on the table. "Just answer the question!"

"Brothers, I think," Tsuna said. Ding. Gokudera was instantly happy again. "Um… I only know four of the shoguns," he admitted. "But Ieyasu was the first (thanks, Yamamoto), Iemitsu was the third, then came Ietsuna and Tsunayoshi. Haha, Ietsuna is my dad's dad, and Iemitsu is my dad. Grandad passed away when I was barely two, though, so I don't remember him. But that's the only reason I know their names."

"Um… Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was the dog shogun, right?" Yamamoto asked. "Since he was a dog-year and all… and something like an animal rights activist. Or something like that."

"Right," Gokudera nodded. "He instituted numerous animal protection laws. Swatting a fly could get you executed in some cases."

"Glad I don't take after my namesake, then," Tsuna laughed.

Yamamoto stretched. "I think that's enough," he said nonchalantly. "I mean, we studied for the past hour and a half, so we'll probably do okay on the test. Right, Tsuna?"

"R- right!" Tsuna said, anxious to move on. He really didn't like history. Never mind that he would fail the test whether he studied or not, he just didn't like the subject. There was just too much pain and heartache, not to mention he just couldn't remember those names. "It's two right now, so… we were going to do… um…"

"Science," Gokudera filled in helpfully.

"Thanks, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna said. "I think the homework was just that worksheet, but let me check." Pulling out his planner, he rifled through the fraying pages. "Yeah, just that one worksheet she gave us. The one on… what was it called? Magno-electrics or something?"

"I thought it was magnetic electrodes."

"I believe it was electro-magnetics."

Tsuna stopped flipping through his textbook. "Nice to know that only Gokudera-kun was right," he laughed. "Electro-magnets."

Halfway through the worksheet, someone knocked on the door. "Coming!" Tsuna called, getting up. Opening the door, he smiled. "Oh, hi, Fuuta!"

"Tsuna-nii! Mama told me to bring snacks for you!"

Opening the door wider, Tsuna revealed a small boy, aged somewhere around six or seven. He had mousy light-brown hair and brown eyes, placed above a shy smile. "Thanks, Fuuta!" Tsuna said, patting the boy on the head.

"Yo," Yamamoto greeted, raising his hand and waving slightly. Gokudera looked up and stared. "Tsuna, I didn't know you had a brother!" the Japanese boy laughed.

"Really?" Tsuna asked, relieving Fuuta of the tray. "I could've sworn you've met him before. Oh well; Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto, this is my adopted brother, Fuuta. Fuuta, these are my friends: Gokudera Hayato and Yamamoto Takeshi." He placed the snacks down on the table, and Yamamoto gave his thanks before pouncing on a cookie.

"Pleased to meet you, Hayato-nii, Takeshi-nii!" Fuuta said, smiling. "Mama and Papa adopted me a little before my sixth birthday, so I've lived here a little less than a year… I'll be turning seven in January, though!"

"Dad picked him up during a trip to Italy to visit his family," Tsuna explained, sitting back down and motioning for Fuuta to join them. "He's a second-grader now, but he doesn't go to Namimori Primary, so that might explain it."

"Why's that?" Gokudera asked.

Tsuna laughed nervously. "Because he goes to a school with an international program a little farther away. This kid has potential, unlike me."

"That's not true, Tsuna-nii!" Fuuta pouted, pulling a face. "I think that if someone did a ranking of sixth-graders with the most potential, you'd be up towards the top of the list."

"Really? Then when you get around to making that ranking list, show me and ask what grade I'm in."

They laughed and talked for a few minutes, taking a break from studying, before Fuuta stood up and said that he wanted to work on his schoolwork too, so he could be a great student when he got older like Hayato-nii. But he wouldn't mind being good at sports like Takeshi-nii, or really kind like Tsuna-nii. All three advised him to simply do whatever felt the best for him.

It was a few hours later when Tsuna threw his pencil down on the desk and completely flopped. "I've never studied for this long straight before in my _life_," he groaned, taking a much-needed break from the arithmetic workbook.

"You're farther than I am, though," Yamamoto laughed. "And naturally, Gokudera's done and just sitting there."

"That's not true!" Gokudera spluttered indignantly. "I'm waiting for a time when my services will be needed," he added haughtily. "Unlike baseball idiots like you, I actually use much of my brain."

"But everything you've been explaining is just what's in the textbook?"

"Tch. Of course it is, idiot. It's part of something called the _curriculum_."

Yamamto smiled. "Well, thanks to you, I know what it is now."

Gokudera made a cross face and snatched the workbook. "Let me see that," he snapped, flipping through the one and a half finished pages. "… they're all right…"

"So, Yamamoto could be a really good student if he weren't always focused on baseball…" Tsuna sighed incredulously. What he wouldn't do to be like that. "Although I think I'm done… Gokudera-kun, can you help me with some of these while Yamamoto finishes?"

"Of course, Tenth!" the silver-haired boy answered cheerfully, tossing the workbook back to its owner as he scooted closer to the brunet. "Which problems?"

"Well, mostly just these synthesis problems. The ones where we're mixing different things. I'm having trouble with the area of those non-solid shapes."

"Well think of it this way," Gokudera suggested, picking up a piece of scratch paper. "If I have this paper, and I tear a chunk out of the middle, how can I find the area of the paper that's left?"

Tsuna looked from the O-shape in Gokudera's left hand, to the messy blob in his right. "You measure it," he answered dumbly.

Gokudera sighed. "… Well, could you subtract the part from the whole?"

"What?"

"Never mind that." Gokudera sighed again, trying to figure out how to help his beloved Tenth. "How about, instead of that, you reconstruct the shape? You can divide this O-shape into four pieces," he said, demonstrating, "and then we can just add the area of those together."

"Oh," Tsuna said, scribbling things down. "Ooh, I get it now! Thanks, Gokudera-kun."

"I guess Tsuna's just better at constructing than destroying," Yamamoto laughed. "He's so kind-hearted he can't even subtract numbers." Tsuna laughed nervously, and Gokudera scowled and muttered darkly under his breath as though to curse the baseball boy.

…

"We're done!"

All three boys shouted simultaneously immediately after checking their last answer on page 87 of the workbook. Yamamoto flopped onto his back and closed his eyes, and Tsuna collapsed onto the table. Gokudera stayed sitting and began packing all his materials away. "I can't believe we finished all that homework in one day," Yamamoto laughed. "I usually don't finish until Sunday afternoon."

"It's all thanks to the Tenth," Gokudera beamed. "Had he not suggested we stay over, then you would never have finished in all eternity. Be grateful, Yamamoto!" Tsuna hadn't the energy to correct him, and Yamamoto laughed it off. He was tired from working so hard; after all, he never finished early either.

"Tsuna-nii? Takeshi-nii? Hayato-nii?" Fuuta's voice called them from the door as he knocked. "Dinner's going to be ready soon."

"Coming!" Tsuna called, before lazily shoving all of his own notebooks and texts and papers back into his ransel.

The six-year old opened the door. "Tsuna-nii, Mama told me to come up and tell you to come down for dinner," he said excitedly. "Fried noodles! It's fried noodles, Tsuna-nii!"

"Alright, alright!" Tsuna laughed, throwing his hands up in mock despair. "I'm coming, just stay on the ground and don't go floating through the ceiling in a happy-fit." He got up, and his two friends quickly followed suit, all three heading to the bathroom to wash their hands.

"This is amazing!" Yamamto mumbled around a mouthful of noodles, serving himself another helping.

"Yamamoto-kun, you have to swallow, then talk," Nana reminded him.

Gokudera took a different approach. "At least take only as much as fits in your mouth, idiot," he scoffed, before completely disregarding his own words and stuffing himself. He cursed something under his breath, and Nana reminded _him_ that there was a six-year old child at the table.

Tsuna just laughed, glad to be having fun with his two best friends and two-thirds of his family. Fuuta was having fun too; he and Yamamoto were making funny faces at each other.

* * *

_Sorry that chapter 2 is so much shorter than chapter one- by a lot, but that's what the story dictates, so oh well~_

_I don't have much to say about this one, so I hope to see you next time, too._


	3. The Voice Recording

**Evidence 3: The Voice Recording**

* * *

The following monday, in Language Arts class, Tsuna fidgeted in his seat, incredibly nervous about his own work. Yamamoto volunteered to read his, though, so he tried to sit still and listen.

…

Shivering, the boy looks up.

He looks up at the sky, white clouds drifting lazily from one end of the horizon to the other. He looks through the trees, cracked and dry fingers trying to scrape the heavens. He looks up at the single leaf struggling against the autumn breeze to hold onto its branch, and he thinks.

Another year past, another year gone, another year older. He is twelve now, almost a middle-schooler. There is something sad about it. He knows that he has gotten more mature now, but what else? He is having to discard the carefree days of childhood, to accept the cold winter days that are coming without a doubt. He trembles again, feeling the wind cut through his coat and slap his face. He can't know the future, can't know what is coming, but feels a sense of foreboding all the same. His intuition tells him that this winter will be a long one.

Then, he takes a step back, takes a deep breath, and looks again. He looks past the bangs in his face, the same color as his eyes and the shriveled brown leaf up above. He looks past that leaf, too, trembling in the wind and assaulted by light autumn rain as it clings to a branch. He looks past the branches, looking like great cracks across the sky in their barren state. He looks at the sky, wide open, endless, free.

There is something to be learned here. He can't know what will come to strike him down, but neither can he know what will come to boost him up. He thinks of all the friends and good memories he has created in the past year, and he smiles. He has lived through winter time and time again before, and he can do it again. A long winter only means that spring will be all the more gratifying.

The leaf snaps, drifting to the ground, riding the wind.

…

_There's no way I can go after that!_ Tsuna screamed internally. Yamamoto sat down and grinned at him, though, so he mustered his confidence (what little he had of it at the moment) and gave a thumbs-up and mouthed, "good job."

"Eh... Sawada-kun," the teacher drawled, and Tsuna looked up. "Since it seems you want to say something, why don't you read yours?"

… _Crud!_

Mustering his confidence (what little there was of it at the moment), he stood up shakily and began reading. He tripped over words and shook like a leaf, but there was nothing for it.

…

This story begins with a gray cat.

This cat was a very prideful creature. He had no fears, for he had no enemies. He needed no one. But because of that, he had no one. Along with being a very prideful creature, he was a very lonesome cat.

One day while he was stalking through the forest, he came across a pond. There were no other cats near, because all the other cats in his territory were too scared to approach him. They were afraid of his sharp claws and his sharper temper. After drinking for a bit, he looked up to see a black head staring curiously at him from the water. Surprised, he leapt back and yelped. "Wah!"

The head dragged itself onto the shore. In actuality, it belonged to a soaking wet, black dog. As the dog shook himself dry, the cat hissed and backed into a crouch. "What do you want?" he snapped.

The dog wagged his curled tail, now mostly dry. "Hi!" he barked happily. "What's your name? Do you want to play with us?"

"Us?" the cat asked, still crouching. "What do you mean, 'us?' There's only one of you."

"What are you talking about?" another voice squeaked. A mouse popped out of the dog's neck fur. "Please don't forget about me!"

Standing up tall, the cat glowered. "I don't care," he growled. "Don't bother me anymore. I don't need friends, and I don't need a mouse and a dog following me everywhere."

But as he turned to leap away, the dog ran after him, the brown mouse now clinging to his companion's head. "Hey, wait up!" the dog called. "We just want to play! C'mon, let's do something fun!" The cat ignored him and hopped away through the lower branches up above.

When at last the cat stopped at the edge of a cliff, the dog nearly ran into him trying to stop. "Why don't you want to be friends with us?" he asked dejectedly. The mouse squeaked in agreement.

The cat motioned to the edge. "See all this?" he asked, referring to the massive forest. "Most of this is my territory. I set it up myself, with no one's help. I don't want to play because I maintain it. I don't need you two because I've gotten this far by myself. So bug off. And don't come back or I'll really get angry."

Satisfied with the dog and mouse's crestfallen looks, the cat nodded and went to bound off into the trees again. But at one point, his foot caught on a branch, and he fell. _This is it,_ he thought. _I'm high enough that it'll kill me. Oh well, no one ever cared anyway_.

However, the fall was broken by the dog's back. "Hey, you okay?" the dog asked, voice laden with concern. The cat growled. "Let me go," he snapped. "Your stupid vibes are going to infect me."

The dog shrugged and began walking into the forest. "Well that's fine, but at least thank Mouse," he chattered. "He's the one who asked me to follow you."

"N- no!" the mouse squeaked, hiding behind an ear. "I- it was just a gut feeling! B- but… I'm glad you're safe. Your ankle is twisted, though. We can help you!"

The cat blinked. He had been so terrible to them, and yet these two still insisted on being nice. He wasn't sure whether they were stupid or just really kind.

_Oh well,_ he thought, sighing. _I guess I wouldn't mind them sticking around for a bit longer…_

…

Before History class, Tsuna and Yamamoto sat gravely at their desks, staring down as though doing so would bore a hole through the desk, though the floor, and the impact of falling to the floor below would injure them enough to get out of tests forever. Actually, falling through the floor would probably get them out of classes for a while. Oh well.

Point being, neither felt very confident. Meanwhile, other students were joking and cavorting about, pretending to flirt or study. Gokudera sat at his desk, half-sleeping with his legs crossed on top of his desk. When the door opened, a young man they had never seen before walked in, and the students watched warily at he stalked stiffly over to the teacher's desk and began laying out papers. He had messy blond hair, and Tsuna briefly wondered if it was bleached. Clearing his throat, most listened (Gokudera was still half-asleep) as the man began speaking.

"Uh… last night your usual teacher fell down a flight of stairs," he said, speaking in a tone that was clearly intended to be imposing ("intended" being the operative word), "and has been hospitalized. So until he's better, I will be taking his place as a substitute teacher. My name–" here, he turned to write his name in five neat characters on the blackboard, "– is Tenma Keijuurou.

"But let's set introductions aside for tomorrow; I understand that you're having a test today." The class as a whole nodded (Gokudera had woken up at some point). "Your teacher told me that he wanted you all to take this test in groups. A partner test, if you will. Choose your own partners and sit at the same table together, and I'll start handing these out."

As a large huddle of girls- and several boys as well- assaulted Gokudera to try and get the genius delinquent on their team, Yamamoto and Tsuna grinned at each other. The former grabbed his materials- two B pencils and an eraser- before scooting over into the next seat to pair with Tsuna.

…

"… and that's why Yamamoto and I are pretty sure we aced the test," Tsuna finished, putting the last plate on the dining room table.

"That's great!" his father, Iemitsu, shouted from the other end with a booming laugh. Tsuna grimaced a bit when he realized that his father had several bottles of beer next to a hairy fist on the table, and that his only articles of clothing were boxer shorts and an undershirt that was almost undoubtedly somewhat sweaty. "You had some pretty good luck today, sport!"

"Dad… at least put some pants on."

Iemitsu walked around the table and slung an arm around his son's shoulders. "Oh, don't be so uptight, Tsuna!" he said, grinning. Tsuna crinkled his nose at the smell of alcohol wafting from his father's mouth, but smiled anyway at the praise (?). "You're not old like your dad, so you don't have to be keeping to stuffy traditions just yet."

"You're pretty young to have a sixth-grade son, Dad."

Iemitsu scratched his stubby blond beard (or maybe he constantly had five-o'clock shadow… or was just too lazy to shave), which produced a 'scritch-scritch' sound, then grinned again and walked back to his seat at the table. "Nah, you're just too old to have a 35-year old dad."

Tsuna nodded vaguely before turning to the kitchen. "Fuuta, table's set!"

"Mama said not to shout in the house because it's a neighborhood disturbance!" Fuuta called back.

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of your yelling in the house!"

The six-year old laughed, walking over to his big brother with two heaping plates of curry. "Tsuna-nii," he said, sticking out his tongue playfully. "You're the one yelling!"

His brother laughed. "Alright, fine. You sure you can carry-"

Fuuta slipped, Tsuna bent down and caught both plates with his hands and kept Fuuta from hitting the floor with a foot. Realizing that he couldn't exactly hold that position forever, he scooted both plates on to the nearest hard surface (a chair at the table) and helped Fuuta up, cleaning him of dust like a mother hen. "You're not hurt, right? You should really be careful about how much you can carry, Fuuta."

The one in question, however, was much less interested in his own safety, and much more interested in his brother's feat of suddenly amazing hand-eye-foot coordination. "I'm fine, but Tsuna-nii, that was amazing!" he said, eyes full of stars. "I didn't know that Tsuna-nii could do things like that!"

Tsuna rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Hehe… I can't," he replied. "But, you know, I just… did it. I was worried you would get hurt, so I guess that was it?"

"Well you caught the curry first," Iemitsu pointed out with a chuckle. "Hungry, eh?"

Tsuna's stomach rumbled, Fuuta's followed suit, and all three males began laughing.

"Boys, stop fooling around and help set the table," Nana called in a playfully stern tone from the kitchen.

"It's already set!" Tsuna replied.

His mother walked in with two more plates of curry. "Well, then, I suppose the only thing we can do now is eat!"

The two boys cheered and sat down while both parents laughed; Nana sat down and gave Fuuta his plate while he started talking about what he did in school that day. While everyone laughed about how one of Fuuta's classmates had accidentally glued his hair to a girl's dress, Iemitsu nudged Tsuna. "Hey, tell me how your test went when you get it back, alright?" he whispered, winking.

Tsuna replied with a thumbs-up and a smile.

…

Halfway through dinner, Iemitsu turned the TV on. Nana scolded him, but did not stop him, so in the end they ate with the noise of the local news station in the background. Though Namimori was small for a city, it was quite isolated, surrounded on three sides by green mountains and on one side by blue sea, so the town had many local businesses and a surprisingly small population. News station, train station, bus stops, shrine, fancy hotels… a lot of things had been built specifically for the town's use, because it could be shockingly difficult to get in or out of Namimori- mostly the latter.

As Tsuna was talking about how the reaction to his story had been much better than he had even hoped, he barely heard the alert sound of an incoming special report. Iemitsu was watching intently, though no one else seemed at all interested… that is, until something caught Tsuna's ear.

"_-the police, right? Well, say something."_

He whipped around mid-sentence, eyes wide. He recognized that voice, but he just couldn't quite put his finger on who it was. It was a bit soft and muffled, meaning that the person probably was holding the microphone away from his or herself, and there was a light shuffling noise in the background. According to the small text bar at the bottom of the screen, it was a recording of a call made to the 110 emergency police telephone number.

"_Hmm… I guess you can't in that state. I'll do it, then."_ A pause. _"Good evening, officers."_ The voice was louder now, speaking clearly and formally into the receiver. Young and male, probably; the pitch suggested that its owner had not yet gone through puberty, yet the tone and wording were those of an adult. _"I thought that I'd let you know that I'm threatening a man in his own home. I'm sure you can figure out the address, as this is his house phone, running on a landline. Don't think that you can catch me, though."_ All this time, there had been a methodic thumping sound, perhaps the attacker's shoes as he walked, and then suddenly there was a shout, thudding, then silence. The voice sighed. _"I suggest you get an ambulance while you're at it; he just fell down a flight or two of stairs, and it doesn't seem like he'll be getting up anytime soon. Well then, officers, I bid you a good night."_

There was a click, and the image cut back to the anchorwoman. _"The victim, 43-year old elementary school teacher Kakinuma Kojiro, has been hospitalized. He claims that the attacker was a young boy with an unidentifiable accent and glowing eyes, but also that he was not directly attacked, only given a request. Scared, he fell down the stairs when trying to escape in the dark room; he hopes go go back to work before next month. Any information on this case should be relayed directly to the police as soon as possible. Next up…"_

"Oh, Tsu-kun, isn't that your teacher?" Nana asked right as the man's image was replaced by an image of two interlocked rings, the story changing to the topic of legal arguments over marriage.

"Y- yeah…" Tsuna replied with a stutter. "I- well… the substitute said that he fell down a flight of stairs, b- but… but I wasn't expecting _that!_"

"It's a strange incident," Iemitsu commented, nodding and leaning back in his chair. "An unknown individual trespassing through a window, but taking nothing and not hurting the guy inside, just talking. That's not something that usually happens."

It was then that Fuuta said something strange. "It keeps happening," he mumbled, but Tsuna was the only one that heard, it seemed, because Nana and Iemitsu kept exchanging comments. The young boy was staring down at his fists, blanched white on his knees. "The clock won't stop anymore."

Tsuna faked a yawn. "Well, I think I'll go to bed," he said, stretching and then putting a hand on Fuuta's shoulder. That seemed to snap him out of his stupor. "C'mon, Fuuta, let's go brush our teeth."

…

"You okay?" the older brother asked, concerned as he squirted toothpaste onto his, then Fuuta's, toothbrushes. "You were saying something weird earlier."

Fuuta laughed, but to Tsuna, it seemed just a little bit forced. "I'm fine; thanks, Tsuna-nii," he replied. "I just had a weird dream last night, and the news recording made me think of it."

"Wanna talk about it?" was the intended response, though it was garbled through a mess of toothpaste mush.

"Mmm… maybe later," the younger brother replied, equally garbled. "Not while we're trying to brush our teeth!"

Tsuna chuckled. The rest of the time they passed wordlessly, spitting out the toothpaste and gargling, Tsuna helping Fuuta by wiping his face clean.

…

Fuuta, for whatever reason, had a fondness for sleeping on the floor in a futon. He rarely slept in bed, though he had his own room, and instead pulled all the covers off and curling up on the carpet. He fixed it in the morning, of course, but Nana and Iemitsu still noticed and, after a month or two, bought their newly adopted son a futon. Tsuna had joked that that it should be called a "Fuutan", so Fuuta made his new brother a sign for his bedroom door in school. A wooden fish painted blue, with whimsical orange lettering spelling out "Tsuna" in English. On the back, "TUNA" was written in fat black marker. Iemitsu put a nail in the door, and the sign was put up that afternoon (orange letters facing out).

It was that futon that he dragged to his brother's room, asking if he could sleep there tonight. Tsuna, being what Fuuta called "the person least likely to refuse a request", smiled and opened the door wider.

Once they were comfortable, Tsuna in his bed and Fuuta in his bedding, Tsuna got up- he briefly wondered why he'd bothered getting comfortable in the first place- and switched the lights off. He did, however, leave the blinds up, though the window was closed. Fuuta wasn't trying to sleep either, sitting up and watching his brother.

"Alright, what's up?" Tsuna asked, sitting on the floor next to Fuuta. He made a knowing, kind smile, one that offered comfort and protection. "You wouldn't ask to stay with me if something wasn't up."

Fuuta laughed. "This is why I think you're the number one empathetic older brother, Tsuna-nii," he commented. "Which is also why I think that, if I'm going to tell anyone about my dream, it should be you."

Tsuna, sensing that a long story was coming, shifted to sit more comfortably and leaned back slightly against his desk drawers. Fuuta waited for him to stop squirming before speaking again.

"I've had a lot of dreams in the past week," Fuuta confessed. "And… they're all kind of similar, actually." Here, he turned and looked straight into his brother's eyes. "Tsuna-nii, you were in all of them… and in every one, you died."

Tsuna unconsciously took a sharp intake of breath as the younger boy continued. "And there's always this other boy- he has short black hair, and he's always crying. Crying because you're dead, I think. I don't quite remember the others, but last night was the first time he said anything." He laughed slightly, and to Tsuna, it sounded tired; tired in a way that no six-year old should be. "He called me a prince… Isn't that funny? I grew up on the streets of Italy, but I'm a prince.

"But anyway, that boy- I think he's around your age, Tsuna-nii, maybe just a little bit older. He was crying, and you were just lying there. I couldn't move for a while, and when I did, all I could really do was fall on my knees. I'm not sure if I cried then, but that boy, he turned and looked at me. He had really pale, blue eyes.

"He said, 'Prince, I have no words to say. From the beginning to the end, everything has been my fault. So please, until I myself have righted what I have wronged, could you wait just a little bit longer?'

"Then he stood up and walked away, still crying. There was a really bright light, and then I woke up. My pillow was wet, so I guess I cried at some point."

Fuuta laughed again, but a little brighter this time. "It's funny; he sounded like that person on the news recording did. Like… like the way an oak tree would sound- a lot older than it looks."

They sat in silence for a few seconds before Tsuna patted Fuuta's head. "Hey, _Prince of Stars._" Fuuta looked at him. "If I keep dying in your dreams, then tell you what." Tsuna smiled, looking for all the world like he was prepared to sacrifice himself if it meant his brother's happiness. "This time, in reality, I'll try to stay alive. No promises, but I'll try my best to come back and see you before I die, alright?"

Fuuta's eyes expressed shock, before melting into a mixture of happiness and relief. His eyes teared up before he flung his arms around Tsuna's neck and cried. Tsuna, in turn, patted his back and said nothing.

The door cracked open and Nana poked her head in, but Fuuta didn't seem to notice. Tsuna did, though, and he held a finger up to his lips before smiling and waving slightly. Nana smiled back and nodded before shutting the door.

Once Fuuta had run out of tears, Tsuna grabbed a tissue box off the desk and wiped his little brother's face off. "You know, Yamamoto sang something for me the other day," he said, and Fuuta sniffled. "I remember part of it: 'Hey, when you want to cry, you just want to cry; you just need to cry until your tears run out. You don't have to tough it out, because you'll get stronger.'" He smiled humorously. "Are you out of tears yet? My shirt's getting wet and it's cold."

Fuuta chuckled slightly, and it grew into laughter. Tsuna laughed with him, and after a few minutes just being together, they moved into their respective places, said their goodnights, and fell asleep.

…

For the next week, Tsuna slept soundly, and it seemed like Fuuta did too. That reassured him.

"Oh, good morning."

Tsuna screeched to a halt, nearly running into a black-haired boy right outside his house. Had the other not stopped, they would've had a collision. "Hibari-san!" he exclaimed, taking a thick slice of toast out of his mouth so he could talk. "Good morning!" He paused for a moment. "Didn't you live on the other side of my house?"

"I do," Hibari agreed, before pointing down at his hand. Only then did Tsuna notice the plastic bag he held with his school bag. "But I woke up late, so I went to buy breakfast and lunch instead of making it."

Tsuna mumbled an "oh" around his toast as he began running to make it to school on t- "Gack!"

"Running immediately after eating is bad for your stomach," Hibari said, dropping his hand from where he had grabbed Tsuna by the collar. "I'll walk with you; you won't be late."

Tsuna swallowed thickly. "U- um… thanks, Hibari-san."

_This is so strange… I barely know him, but it seems like he's really watching out for me._

Tsuna had to power-walk as he tried to finish his breakfast as Hibari plowed on ahead through the thin layer of snow that was just beginning to build up on the ground.

* * *

_Fun fact: Teacher Tenma has had several name changes! At first he was something Sokumuba, but then he became Tenma Seijuurou, and then I couldn't decide between Kenjuurou and Kenjuuson (there are often many different ways to read a Japanese character… orz). And, well, I just now changed it to Keijuurou. Oh well; hopefully I'lll remember that I have terrible naming sense!_

_A- anyway, I'm really sorry for the long wait on this chapter! "Incarsyon" has chapters that flow together, so it's easier to write that and just keep writing. In contrast, "Repeat" tends to jump around in time and place, so it's a bit harder to keep a steady rhythm. But it's strange, since I find that both are written kind of like memories. Well, even if you don't celebrate Christmas or don't believe in the Nativity, I hope you enjoy at least this gift._

_[Edit] I'm sorry that I keep changing things at the last minute, but I just can't stand it when I can't completely fix things! Sorry!_


	4. The Classmates

**Evidence 4: The Classmates**

****_I'm fairly certain that somebody is going to comment on how out of character Hibari is; sorry about that in advance. I assure you, though, he is the way he is for… many reasons into which I will not divulge because it would invoke caUsal spoilers. Terribly sorry for the inconvenience!_

* * *

"Yo, Tsuna!"

"Good morning, Tenth!"

"Oh, good morning Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto." Tsuna sank into his seat with a heavy sigh.

"Haven't seen you on the way to school lately," Yamamoto mentioned, plonking into his own seat, which happened to be right next to Tsuna's this month, in the front row with Tsuna next to the window and Gokudera in the second row immediately behind Yamamoto (Gokudera often complained about the baseball nut's tall height). "Something happen?" He thought for a moment, then popped his right fist into his left palm decisively. "I got it! You're running before you get to school, so you're leaving earlier and then coming in a little bit later."

Gokudera's face blanched. "I- it couldn't be that you've gotten tired of us, could it, Tenth!?" he choked out, sounding as though he was dangerously close to panicking.

Tsuna laughed. "No… haha, neither of those are right. I've just been waking up late all week, so I've been taking a shortcut."

Yamamoto blinked. "A shortcut?" Tsuna nodded in response, to which Yamamoto laughed. "Didn't know there were shortcuts to school! How'd you find it?"

"Oh, a neighbor showed me."

Gokudera nodded his head, back to his usual analytical self. "I see… would that neighbor happen to be the guy who was walking with you to the gate this morning?"

In all honesty, Tsuna was surprised by his friend's display of attentiveness. "Yeah," he nodded, "His name is Hibari-san. He doesn't usually walk with me, but apparently he had to leave early and was going to school on the way back from the shopping center."

Yamamoto blinked before resting a hand on his chin in thought, eyebrows furrowing. "Hmm… Hibari… that name sounds awfully familiar for some reason."

"I agree," Gokudera said, before turning to the brunet. "He… doesn't go to this school, then?"

Tsuna nodded. "He recently moved here, but he was wearing a gakuran when he asked me for directions, so I assume that he's a middle-schooler."

"But for him to drop you off when he probably has school too… You don't think he's a delinquent, do you?"

"Mm… I don't think so. He doesn't seem like the type that would even consider hanging around with people like that."

"Maybe he goes to Nami-Chuu," Gokudera filled in helpfully. "I haven't actually been there myself, but it shouldn't be too far from here."

Yamamaoto laughed again, in that barking way of his. "Haha, guess you could be-"

"Sorry I'm late, everyone." The trio turned around in their seats, half-surprised to see their middle-aged homeroom and history teacher, Kakinuma, instead of Tenma. He was walking with a cane, his left foot in a brace, but other than that he seemed to be doing fine. "Please sit down, all of you- Kurokawa-san and Miura-san, turn around: you can talk to Sasagawa-san later."

"Looks like he's recovered," Yamamoto whispered, and Tsuna nodded.

"Yamamoto-kun, I suggest that you work on your whispering if you plan on talking with Sawada-kun during class. Until you improve on that, I suggest that you don't."

Yamamoto jumped and laughed an apology and the entire class snickered, bar Tsuna who was chuckling and Gokudera who merely smiled. Continuing on, the teacher began pulling notices out of his worn leather briefcase, wearily calling up that week's class monitors to distribute the papers.

…

"Sawada-kun."

Tsuna jumped in his seat, blushing furiously as he attempted to turn in his chair and instead banged his knee on the underside of the desk and twisted his waist oddly. In the isle between Tsuna and Yamamoto stood Sasagawa Kyoko, the cute girl with short reddish hair who had been Tsuna's lab partner the week before, when they had worked together to make a model of sliding plate tectonics using two wooden boards, a plastic knife, and several layers of differently-colored clay. She giggled as she watched Tsuna fumble but, unlike most all their classmates, seemed to hold no ill will. "Y- y- yes!" the brunet spluttered, still not quite sure how to interact with anyone other than Yamamoto and Gokudera, as most other people only spat insults at him for his uselessness. "I- is something the matter, Sasagawa-san?"

"Oh, you can call me Kyoko," she laughed lightly. "May I call you Tsuna-kun instead?"

Tsuna bit his lip and flushed. "O- of course! Is something the matter, Kyoko-chan?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you would like to eat lunch with us," Kyoko asked. "Since we were going to start brainstorming about a project."

The boy blinked. "'Us'? Who is… that 'us'?"

Kyoko nodded. "Hana-chan, Haru-chan and me. Oh-" here, she turned slightly. "I'm sure that we can make room for Yamamoto-kun and Gokudera-kun, too." Yamamoto and Gokudera, who had been speaking amongst themselves about how _easy_ the lesson was and how _dumb_ Yamamoto was for using _blind luck_ to answer every arithmetic problem, blinked at Kyoko before turning and looking at each other.

Tsuna fumbled. "I- I don't see why not. Um, Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto, do you… want to eat lunch with Kyoko-chan and her friends?"

Yamamoto laughed and Gokudera's surprised face melted into a half-smile. "More the merrier!"

"I'm not usually inclined to interact with females, but I suppose there's no reason to decline, Tenth."

Kyoko clapped her hands enthusiastically before pointing towards the space between the back row desks and the ransel cubbies on the back wall, on the window side. "Great! We're sitting in the back over there."

The three boys grabbed their lunches, following Kyoko to the back of the room. Kurokawa Hana, a cynical girl with shoulder-length wavy black hair, and Miura Haru, dark brown-haired, soft-eyed, and strong of will, were already facing each other and talking, but when they spotted the group of four approaching, they quickly scooted to make more room. Kyoko, whose lunch was already placed on Hana's right side, sat down, and Tsuna, Gokudera, and Yamamoto all took a seat across from the girls (in that order).

"Hahi?" Haru asked, cocking her head to one side. "Kyoko-chan, Haru thought you were only bringing one friend."

"Nothing wrong in having more to work with, I suppose," Hana replied nonchalantly around a mouthful of rice. "And these three are at least _more_ mature than any of the other boys, though two of them are just monkeys."

"Hana-chan, don't be mean."

Gokudera had a feeling that he wouldn't like "working with" two of the girls. One had an annoyingly cutesy way of speaking and the other's aura just warned him that their personalities would clash.

Once the boys were settled, Hana swallowed and began speaking. "Right, so, first thing's first: introductions. I'm Kurokawa Hana. Nice to meet you."

Kyoko smiled. "Sasagawa Kyoko. I don't think any of us have ever talked much… oh, well, I've talked to Tsuna-kun before. Remember that? You consoled me in Kindergarten." Tsuna nodded and smiled at the memory.

"Kyoko-chan, please don't forget about me. I'm Miura Haru!" Haru replied with a decidedly energetic (figurative) spring in her step. "I moved to Namimori in April, so please forgive me if it takes a little while to learn your names!"

"Tch, it's December: you've had eight months to do that," Gokudera replied almost on reflex.

Tsuna momentarily panicked and tried to shush him, but Gokudera and Kurokawa already seemed to have locked gazes with each other and were having a somewhat scary staring contest. "A- anyway, um…" Tsuna glanced at Gokudera next to him, but chose to ignore his friend's antics… for now. "I- I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi, although most people call me Tsuna (or Dame-Tsuna)… but you probably knew that already." (Kurokawa snickered momentarily.)

Gokudera dropped his gaze back to his lunch "… Gokudera Hayato." Taking another bite of his hamburger patty, he fell silent.

"Yamamoto Takeshi!" Yamamoto ended with a wave. "Hehe, looks like Gokudera and Kurokawa are really getting along!"

_No, Yamamoto… that's not it at all…!_

Tsuna coughed. "Um, so… what is it that you all want our help with?"

Kyoko hummed. "Remember last Friday, how everyone decided that we wanted to do a play for the Class Performances at the end of the year?"

The boys nodded.

"Well, Hana-chan, Haru-chan and I were chosen to write it!"

Haru picked up where Kyoko had left off: "The only problem is, is that we don't really know what kind of plays the boys would be _willing_ to be in. So, we thought that the best thing to do would be to borrow some boys that we could work with!"

"So, are you willing to help us or not?" Hana concluded.

The three boys looked at each other. "Sure, why not?" Yamamoto agreed. "It sounds like fun!"

The girls smiled, as did Tsuna. "Winter break is soon, and we're planning to work over that as well. We'll need your contact information," Hana reciprocated. "E-mail addresses and the like."

…

On Christmas day, Tsuna was hard at work. Fuuta had one half of Nana's gift, a long yellow scarf, wrapped around his neck over the other half, a pastel green sweater (also knit by Nana), and was writing in the notebook that Iemitsu had given him while curled up with the cuddly fox plush that was Tsuna's gift at one end of the couch. Dressed so, especially with the addition of the fox, he almost looked like a more modern and casual version of the Little Prince.

On the other end of the couch, Tsuna was sitting with a stack of paper and a pen. He too was wearing a sweater that Nana had knit, though white and with a wide red-orange stripe across the chest to match his mittens. Iemitsu had given him a sturdy shoulder bag (he seemed to enjoy giving practical gifts) and a hug while Fuuta gave him a box each of Pocky and Melty Blend, all of which sat on the far side of the table in front of him. Instead he was looking through the latest draft of the play, which Haru had brought over for him. (She lived not too far away and had a very good printer, so she took upon herself the task of delivering hard copies for Gokudera and Tsuna. She did, however, stay for a bite of breakfast upon Nana's offering, and confess that she didn't get along too well with Gokudera because she detested his rude behavior. Tsuna laughed and said that that didn't surprise him.)

When the doorbell rang, Nana called from the kitchen: "Tsu-kun! Could you get the door for me? My hands are a bit full right now."

"Got it, Mom!"

Taking his handful of papers with him, he got up and opened the door. "Sorry to keep you wait- Oh, Hibari-san! Good morning!"

Indeed, who should be at the door but the black-haired neighbor, carrying a medium-sized box in both hands. Pads of snow were stuck onto his shoulders and the crown of his hair, along with smaller flakes on sundry other parts. "Good morning," Hibari reciprocated with a nod. "… And 'Merry Christmas', too."

"Tsuna-nii, who is it?"

Both older boys turned to see Fuuta, looking shyly around his brother's right leg with his fox cradled in his arms. The six-year old blinked up at the middle-schooler, looking at his clothes- white and navy sneakers, black slacks, and a white collared shirt with a teal tie under a navy knit sweater, all surprisingly clean- and then his face- his eyes had an intriguing blue-gray color. Parts of his fingers were covered in adhesive bandages.

When Hibari smiled at the young boy, Tsuna noticed the momentary flash of icy blue in his eyes. Oh, that'd happened the first time that he'd met Hibari, too. "And you are?" Hibari said, kneeling down on one knee and putting his box to one side, so as to speak nearer to the child's eye level. "Are you the little Prince of Stars?"

As Fuuta still seemed a little uncertain, Tsuna reassured him with a hand on his brother's shoulder. "This is my little brother Fuuta. Fuuta, this is Hibari-san."

"I've heard a lot about you from your brother," Hibari continued, still smiling gently. "You seem like a very intelligent child."

At this, Fuuta shook his head. "Nuh-uh," he rejected. "I'm just an orphan from Italy. Tsuna-nii's the smart one: he's going to grow up and be great! He's the number one best older brother, after all!"

Hibari chuckled and looked up at a laughing Tsuna. "You're very well-appreciated."

Tsuna nodded. "Fuuta's a great kid. Would you like to come inside, Hibari-san?"

"That would be nice," Hibari said, brushing the snow off of his shoulders.

He was about to get up when Fuuta called out. "Hibari-san, you missed a spot!" When the eldest boy only blinked in reply, Fuuta reached out to pat the snow off of Hibari's head, then stepped back to smile. "There!"

As he stood up, taking his box with him, Hibari laughed a bit through his nose, eyes sparkling bright blue. "Thank you, Prince."

…

"Do you not stay with your family for Christmas, Hibari-san?"

"We never really celebrated Christmas, actually. How to describe… it was just another day for us, I guess. It's a bit too far to travel home, and anyway the air there is… heavy. I don't think my younger sister and I would be able to enjoy ourselves at all."

"Ehe, I never really got to celebrate Christmas much, either. I just thought of it as a day when there were pretty lights everywhere, and snow, and everyone seemed really happy! The other kids and I got to play, and some of the people who walked by would give us gifts."

"I've been meaning to ask this: if you grew up in Italy, why do you know Japanese so well?"

"Mmm… I became an orphan around the age of three, so I don't remember my parents much even though I grew up with them. But I think my mother was Japanese and my father was Italian… I guess I just had it somewhere? The two languages are kind of similar to say!"

Tsuna laughed a bit, listening to the conversation over in the living room as Nana helped him to carry a platter of cookies and three mugs of hot chocolate on a tray. Fuuta seemed to have really taken a liking to Hibari, and right now the two were seated snugly on the couch, Hibari with his box on his lap and Fuuta hugging the fox on his. "Please, help yourself," the older brother said, placing the tray on the table in front of him.

As Hibari humbly accepted a mug from Fuuta, he pointed at the stack of papers on the table. "That… what is it? I only read the description at the top."

Tsuna looked down. "Oh, this?" he asked. "Ha ha, it's a few different versions of the script for our class play. We're going to be performing this for the Class Performances at the end of the school year, second Thursday of March, right before graduation. Do you want to come, Hibari-san?"

"… It seems interesting. I'll have to see if I can go."

"Mama! Mama!" Fuuta called excitedly. "Can Hibari-san stay? He can't spend Christmas with his family, so I think he should spend it with us!"

Nana laughed as she walked in with her own teacup. "Only if he's okay with it," she replied. "Well?"

Hibari blinked. "Are you sure that it's alright for me to stay? I hope I won't be a bother."

Nana waved her hand. "Oh, of course not, dear; don't worry! My husband isn't able to come home this year, so there's an empty spot at the table, just for you."

Hibari smiled warmly. "Thank you. Before I forget, I would be… grateful if you would accept these gifts. They're not much, and I'm sorry that they don't look very presentable, but I haven't got much in the way of decoration."

For the first time, the middle-schooler opened his box. It wasn't particularly large: about the size of a tissue box. The first thing he pulled out was a charm, of the type that could be bought at a shrine or made by hand. It was red in color with a white tie and white design. This he held out to Nana. "I'm not particularly superstitious, but I like to think that these at least have a calming effect."

Excited as a young girl, she took the precious gift in her hands. "Oh, it smells of lavender," she commented.

Hibari glanced away and muttered something that sounded like "that would be my house" under his breath.

"_'Kanai-anzen'_." Nana giggled. "You certainly know where a mother's heart is, Hibari-kun. I'm sure this will protect my family until next year."

"If it doesn't, I will," Hibari replied. Tsuna laughed inwardly at how embarrassed the older boy seemed. That being said, however, the raven only pulled out another charm, this time blue with navy design and tie. "Yours," was the only given description as it was thrust into Tsuna's hands.

"Uh… I can't read it."

Tsuna felt his face burn as Nana leaned over to see. "Oh, this is _'yaku-yoke',_" she supplied. "It's a charm to ward away evil and disaster."

Tsuna smiled. "Thank you, Hibari-san."

Hibari smiled. "I hope they're effective, even if it's only a placebo effect. I tried my best." Then he turned to Fuuta, patting the mousy brown head. "The last one is for the little Prince," he chuckled. "I hope you'll like it."

This time, however, what came out of the box wasn't a a charm.

"… A pocket watch?" Fuuta turned the shiny brass object over in his hands, having removed the black leather cover.

Hibari nodded. "It belonged to my father before he gave it to me. I'd like you to hold on to it, because it's very important. So you have to take good care of it, okay?"

Tsuna smiled as Fuuta's face lit up before the small boy nodded vigorously.

…

Tsuna took a deep breath, clutching the precious charm tightly to his chest.

At a soft tap on his shoulder, he looked behind him to see Haru, looking at him with soft eyes. "Tsuna-san, you're nervous, aren't you? It might be better if you just take it easy for a bit."

Tsuna laughed, moving away from where he had been standing at the edge of the outer curtain. From there, he could see some faces of schoolmates, specifically the first graders. He could hear everyone else though, and he knew that Hibari was somewhere in the crowd, as were Fuuta, his mother, and his father. Everyone was laughing at two of the fourth graders' _manzai_ act going on on the outer edge of the stage. "You're right, Haru," he agreed. "I'm sure we'll do well."

Haru giggled a little bit shyly, her face filled with determination in that Haru way of hers. "It's the play we wrote with Tsuna-san. That's why there's no way everyone won't enjoy it! Haru agrees that it's worrying to be the last class to perform, but it just won't do to let everyone in 6-C down! And…" Here, she fidgeted, looking slightly away and blushing. "Since it'll probably be a while until I see Tsuna-san again, I want to do the best I can."

Tsuna smiled warmly, just in the same way he had when consoling his baby brother. "I'm sure we'll do well," he repeated, giving her a slight hug as they made their way to center stage, behind the thick red curtains. The act outside was ending. "And I'm sure we'll meet again in the near future. Maybe we can all… go to the zoo during spring break! You know, the six of us, or however many of us can go."

Haru smiled, almost wistfully. "Haru- I would like that."

…

Hibari smiled at the comedy duo. They were good, for elementary-school fourth graders. He had preferred the sixth-grader playing piano with her third grade brother on violin earlier in the morning, but that was a personal choice. On his own lap, Hibari had a copy of the play, which Tsuna had given him.

As the duo left to wild applause, a teacher, probably early in his forties, came out with no sign of needing walking aid. Hibari had seen him before: that was Tsuna's homeroom and history teacher, Kakinuma; according to Tsuna, he had a reputation for having long ears. He'd been in the news, too. "Eh… I'd like to thank you all for coming today," the old man said, adjusting the microphone. "As our final performance, I am proud to announce class 6-C's play, _Night Sparrow_."

The curtains drew slowly open onto a dark stage as the teacher switched places with a student, short and studious-looking with thickly-framed glasses. "In the night, I saw a sparrow. It cried 'chi chi chi' in the mountains, and its song blinded me to all else," the student spoke. "This tale begins in a castle by the mountains, and there lived husband and wife."

As he spoke, the lights came on. The scene was of a simple living room (painted on a backboard), with a table and two chairs in the center (real). In the chairs sat Haru and Tsuna, she dressed in a pretty gown and he in a smart and handsome coat.

_Wife: [rises slowly] Why is it that you no longer love me? You, who swore always to be by my side, why do your eyes follow other women?_

_Husband: [seated, but nervous] What could make you say such a harsh thing? My eyes fall only on you._

The girl flourished her fan towards her husband, speaking decisively and with cold conviction. "Enough! Do you think me blind? A fool? I see how you watch the red-haired girl… Go, then! If you wish to seek her out so much, then fulfill your own desires, and leave me alone to my sorrow!"

Clearly shocked and torn by the outburst, the husband slowly rose from his seat and slunk offstage.

Hibari could not help but be proud. He'd replayed in his own mind how he saw the scenes, but they simply didn't match up to reality. As the play went along, he would keep half an eye on the script, watching the actors lift the text off of the page. And then came his favorite scene.

Having been cast away by his pretty wife and unwilling to go see the red-haired girl, the husband had spoken to some of his male friends who all ran a restaurant. Unconsoled, even by the kind peasant who had spoken to him, he now began heading into the mountains (all a darkened stage) to search for enlightenment there.

_Husband: Why, why has this happened?_

Tsuna sank to his knees and called out.

_What wrong have I done? Why has misfortune become my lot? May the wild dogs come and send me to that world apart from worlds!_

Nobody in the audience expected the flurry of sound. As heads turned, they saw a character dressed almost entirely in black, head wrapped loosely with some kind of bandage with squiggles written on it, his or her cape slowly drifting back onto the ground.

"Tch, tch, tch!" the Night Sparrow clicked his tongue. "You humans, always thinking only of yourselves! You turn blind eyes to what you find ugly, with eyes only for your own cherished destruction!"

There was another swish as a similarly-dressed figure appeared out of the darkness directly behind the husband. Hibari saw the first figure quietly dash out the back of the gym. "I yearn for no shinagi rod," the second figure spoke, female. "For why should I yearn for something that will only bring me pain? I shall not be struck, and I shall not disappear."

As she stepped back into the shadows, a third emerged from house left. "Chi, chi, chi." The third voice was higher still, female again. "You may think of us as ill omen, but we call for the mountain dogs to keep the beasts away. Therefore, we act in grace!"

The two other Night Sparrows appeared behind and to the stage right of the husband, surrounding him. "Let it be known!" the three spoke in unison. "You, who have known nothing but to have joy in the eye, shall not see until you see truth!"

The sparrows sang random notes, spinning three circles around the husband before dropping back out of the light.

The husband looked at his hands, then felt himself to check for injuries. At least, he cried out. "M- my eyes! I can't see!"

…

As class 6-C took their ensemble bow, the curtains closed. Tsuna finally let his face fall; though he had seen Hibari at the beginning of the show, at some point the older boy had disappeared. The principal was out there, giving them time to move, though, so he tried to keep his mind off of it and clean up quickly to get out into the chairs with the rest of his class.

"Each of the students you saw from the last three class performances will be carrying our legacy with them as they graduate into middle school," the principal drawled, apparently still finishing a thought. "Not all of them will be going into Namimori Middle school, but some will be entering other schools in other cities: Midori Middle School, Yuumei Middle School, among others. And yet, as our partner school, I am pleased to invite a representative from Namimori Middle School: middle school first-year Hibari Kyouya. Please, give him your warmest welcome."

As there was barely hesitant applause, Tsuna gasped as Hibari climbed the stairs onto the stage. Bowing once to the principal, then once to the student body, he opened a folded sheet of paper in his hand and began speaking.

"Sixth graders," the older boy began. "Future and present. It is my honor to stand here today, speaking to you all.

"I myself am not a graduate of Namimori Elementary, having moved here in October. However, most of my classmates are, and there is little doubt in my mind that this school has prepared them well. They know many things already, come up with excellent questions, and, on occasion, surprise me with their clarity of thought. I am, however, not completely unaffiliated with this school. I know several students here personally, and have met many others simply by living in this town. These students, I am proud to say, exhibit the same traits which I just praised in my own classmates, and I am sure that I will find them to be respectable underclassmen should I meet them in April, and respectable citizens should they attend school elsewhere.

"But there is something greater, much greater, than good grades and smiling faces, though those things are well-received. Do you all understand of what I am speaking? I am speaking of tenacity.

"Many of you may not know what this word means. In simple terms, 'tenacity' is not giving up. I am sure that many of you have some activity which you would like never to give up: violin, tennis, soccer, art… if you will not give something up, then it is your pride. In order to excel in anything, you must keep at it, keep trying, and not give in. Because that is the secret to success.

"If you have the willpower to keep trying, keep getting back up, then I am sure that there is nowhere where you cannot go. Thank you all for your time."

As Hibari bowed, Tsuna began clapping… alone. Nervously, his applause died down.

And then two wildly clapping hands sounded from the back, soon joined by four more. Tsuna smiled. _That'll be Fuuta._

Amid growing applause, Hibari disappeared behind the curtain.

* * *

_I'm trying to alternate updates for "Repeat" and "Incarsyon", so it may be a while before the next update (that isn't news at all). I hope you enjoyed!_


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